Dean Ryan has vowed that Dragons will embrace every second of the Heineken Champions Cup after it was revealed the region would play in the top tier of European competition next season.
Dragons – currently gearing up for a Challenge Cup showdown with Bristol Bears – have today (Wednesday) been confirmed by EPCR as part of a new-look Champions Cup format.
The region will now play in the elite tournament against the European big guns for the first time since 2011.
And Ryan wants his players to enjoy the competition when the 2020/21 season kicks off.
“Every person who works in sport wants to be involved at the top and our players aren’t any different,” he said.
“It doesn’t mean our resources won’t be challenged or that the match-ups won’t be interesting, but we can’t help but get excited. We’re delighted to be there, irrespective of what the challenge is.
“We’re over the moon at the prospect of playing against some of the best sides in Europe.
“When you speak to a player at the Dragons about the Champions Cup their eyes light up. We’ll speak about the scale of the challenge later.
“The Guinness PRO14 is incredibly difficult and you play against some of the best sides in Europe there. “We’ve never been daunted by that and taken the approach of how we can enjoy it and get better.
“The Champions Cup will be exactly the same albeit getting around some of the more top sides in Europe and seeing what that looks like.
“What else would we want to do? Nobody here is looking for excuses,” he added. “We’re going to have a ball, we’re really going to enjoy it because that’s where we want to play.
“It’s a huge buzz for players to think about it, playing against some of the very best sides in English Premiership and Top14. That overrides everything. We can’t wait.”
It’s a huge buzz for players to think about it, playing against some of the very best sides in English Premiership and Top14... That overrides everything... We can’t wait...
